Common Repairs For Older Furnaces

If you move into a home with an older furnace, you need to understand how the technology differs from that of a newer furnace. This will help you to troubleshoot your furnace if ever it stops working like it should. While you cannot repair every problem with an older furnace on your own, there are a few repairs that you can make on your own.

Your Furnace Stops Blowing Air

When your furnace stops pumping heated air into your home, you might think that you have a serious problem with your furnace. This is not necessarily the case. Rather than call a repair technician right away, you should start by checking your filter. A seriously clogged filter can rob your furnace of air, which can prevent your furnace from heating your house properly and can also cause damage to your furnace. Thus, you should start by checking your filter and replacing it as necessary.

Your Pilot Light Goes out

An older furnace will have a constantly burning flame to ignite the gas that flows into your furnace when it is time to heat up your house. A draft can cause this light to go out, and when it does, your furnace will not be able to heat your house. Your furnace should come with instructions for how to re-ignite the pilot light, and while these instructions should not be hard to follow, they do differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. You should also consider cleaning the light with a Q-tip soaked in alcohol because if the light gets clogged with residue, it can go out even when there is not a draft.

Your Thermocouple Wears out

A furnace is built with failsafes that help to prevent gas leaks. One of these is known as a thermocouple. A bulb at the end of the thermocouple reads the heat from the pilot light and opens the valve that allows gas to flow into the combustion chamber. When the pilot light goes out, the thermocouple reads the loss of heat and closes the valve. If your thermocouple starts to malfunction, it can prevent the valve from opening when it should. When this happens, you will need to replace it. This is a more complicated repair, but if you are good with mechanics, you should be able to handle it.

These are just a few examples of how knowing the components of a furnace can help you to troubleshoot problems when they happen. While you might want to consider replacing an older furnace, making repairs while you can will help to get more life from your furnace. For more information, contact a company like Bill's Heating & Air Conditioning.

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9 March 2016

About Me

When our air conditioner broke last year, I was fairly confident that we would be left trying to choose a similar system for a bunch of money. However, our friend who works as a general contractor explained that there were all kinds of neat advances in HVAC systems that might help us out. He explained that we might be able to enjoy a quieter system or one that filters our indoor air more effectively. We liked the sound of that, so we started shopping for a new system. After finding an air conditioner that was perfect for our place, we started this blog to educate other homeowners about new technology.